Handbook of Home Rule eBook

“On the whole, then, it appears that, whatever
changes or calamities the future may have in store,
the maintenance of the Union is at this day the one
sound policy for England to pursue. It is sound
because it is expedient; it is sound because it is
just."[57]

I shall not discuss the question of Home Rule with
the eminent writers whose works I have cited.
It is enough that they demonstrate the failure of
the Union. So convinced was Mr. Lecky, in 1871,
of its failure, that he suggested a readjustment of
the relations of the two countries on a federal basis;[58]
and Mr. Goldwin Smith, in 1868, contended that the
Irish difficulty could only be settled by the establishment
of Provincial Councils, and an occasional session
of the Imperial Parliament in Dublin. Mr. Dicey
clings to the existing Union while demonstrating its
failure, because he has persuaded himself that the
only alternative is separation.

Irishmen may be pardoned for acting on Mr. Dicey’s
facts, and disregarding his prophecies. The mass
of Irishmen believe, with Grattan, that the ocean
protests against separation as the sea protests against
such a union as was attempted in 1800.[59]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 26: Omissions here and elsewhere are
merely for purposes of space. In some places
the omitted parts would strengthen the Irish case;
in no place would they weaken it.]